Meet the Man Matt Damon's Calling Our Next Big Movie Star

What a thing it must be for a young actor with only a handful of mostly British TV and film credits to get called out ("He could be a movie star") in a respected magazine (Esquire) by his A-list costar (Matt Damon) for the work in his first major Hollywood film (The Monuments Men). Or maybe not: "When I found out, I laughed," admits the recipient of Damon's ardor, UK native Dimitri Leonidas. "It was probably nervous laughter—I was so flattered. But Matt's words say more about him than they do me."

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That Leonidas, 26, is humble makes him no less dynamic in Men as Sam Epstein, a German Jew turned American GI and the youngest member of the group of U.S. soldiers tasked with reclaiming the world's art stolen by the Nazis in World War II. Even among the venerable ranks of George Clooney (who also directed), John Goodman, Bill Murray, and Damon, Leonidas charges the film with a guile and virtue that, while at risk in wartime, are hearteningly resolute—and integral to the unit's success.

Leonidas will bring similar arete to Jon Stewart's directorial debut, Rosewater, out later this year, as an Iranian youth who aids Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari in pulling back the curtain on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's totalitarian Iran in 2009, which leads in part to Bahari's eventual imprisonment and torture for over 100 days. "[Rosewater] was almost the opposite school of filmmaking from The Monuments Men," says Leonidas. "George is so meticulous in his shot-by-shot planning, and Jon just turns up and says, 'How do you guys want to play this scene?' But for me, it's all osmosis. If you're around people who are that good at their job, you try to be as well." Sounds like Matt may have been on to something.